| Summary: | We consider Russian coordinative constructions with paired conjunctions, such
as i…i ‘both…and’, ili…ili ‘either…or’, ni…ni ‘neither…nor’, ne tol'ko…no i
‘not only…but also’, ne…a ‘not…but’, etc. The paper presents a class of
syntactic constructions, so-called asymmetric constructions, which are
interesting in several respects. They are closely related to coordinative
constructions, although they do not share their principal property - the
identity of syntactic functions of coordinated elements. They take up an
intermediate position between standard syntax and ungrammaticality. On the
one hand, the sentence is within the grammatical norm. On the other hand, its
structure underwent a deformation that left a trace. We propose a description
that accounts for their closeness to and difference from standard - symmetric
- constructions. Symmetric constructions with paired conjunctions are
convenient to describe as a result of two transformations occurring in the
semantic structure: Deletion and Transfer. Asymmetric constructions are
obtained when only one of these transformations is applied. Accordingly, two
subclasses of asymmetric constructions can be distinguished -
“Deletion-Without-Transfer” constructions and “Transfer-Without-Deletion”
constructions. The latter class has a strong pragmatic marking. The core of
this class are “failed” symmetric constructions. The speaker begins to build
a symmetric construction but faces an obstacle of syntactic nature, which
prevents him from completing this plan. “Transfer-Without-Deletion”
constructions constitute a legalized way of overcoming syntactic conflicts.
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